Unnatural Selection
by Dan Ludlow
Summary: The Doctor, Martha and Jack land in Golgafrincham, a Human Colony where image is everything. What is Paul Lohan's legacy and what happens to those considered too ugly to conform?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"Can you imagine a world of perfection in beauty? What would it look like? Who would live there and could you afford it?" read the article in Doctor Paul Lohan's copy of _Heat _magazine. The thirty-five year old molecular physicist was sat in his armchair in the dingy lounge of his high rise flat in the centre of London. It was the year 3000CE and it had been fifty years since mankind had perfected long range space travel.

Paul Lohan had always dreamt of rushing to Heathrow space port and blasting off to a world far, far away. The trouble was that it was a pastime only available to the rich and the famous. He was virtually penniless and scrounging a living as a checkout maintenance technician at the local _Tesco _hypermarket. Every day he would return and crash out in his battered old armchair and read a copy of the previous day's copy of _Heat_ magazine and, if he was lucky, a copy of the _Daily Telegraph_. For some reason mankind had rejected a complete reliance on digital communication media for their news fix.

"Tomorrow", he thought, "my life will be different. I will no longer be a single, depressed, low paid technician. I will get on a space flight and create a world all of my own. A world full of people I want to be associated with. My own private kingdom in the stars"

He looked at his watch. It was 23:00 - time for bed. With a heavy sigh, Paul walked over to his bed and turned the lights off. He had to work again tomorrow.

It was thirty-two years later when Paul Lohan, now sixty seven years old, began to make his dream come true. He had been lucky – he had made an important discovery that made him into a multi-billionaire. Now with his new found fame and influence, Paul advertised for people to join him on his new world in the stars. It was to be a small colony, populated by beautiful, intelligent people. A month before his ship would blast off; he was making a shortlist of people who he would take with him. His dream was just about to become a reality.


	2. Chapter One: The Lonely Outcast

**Chapter One – The Lonely Outcast.**

The Doctor, Martha and Jack were having fun in the TARDIS. _In the Mood _was blaring in the background as the Doctor watched Martha and Jack prance around the console room floor. Jack had missed this experience being stranded on twenty-first Earth. His _Torchwood _colleagues never seemed like friends to Jack and, although there was adventure to be had in Cardiff, it was nothing to the excitement and genuine adventure he could experience travelling through space and time in a blue Police Telephone box with the Doctor. Martha was quite a different kettle of fish compared to Rose, and the new Doctor was vastly different to the one he knew. It felt like being part of a completely new crew aboard a tired old ship.

Moments later, the console began to make a roaring sound; the TARDIS was about to land. The Doctor rushed in from a nearby room in the TARDIS and frantically adjusted the controls to ensure a smooth landing. He wasn't in time. The TARDIS lurched violently, which flung Martha and Jack to the floor. When it did finally land, the Doctor apologised to an enraged Martha before opening the doors.

The TARDIS had landed in the middle of a residential street. All of the houses were pre-fabricated and made from some well insulated metal.  
"Where are we then?" asked Martha impatiently, expecting the answer to be Earth.  
"Now that I don't really know" replied the Doctor. "Let's take a quick guess and say Earth shall we?"

Just then, a door burst open and out of it rushed a young woman. She was blonde, tall and slim. Much to her surprise, Jack wolf-whistled at her. This was met by a dig in the ribs and a fierce glare by Martha.  
"What? You have to show your appreciation somehow!"  
"I'm sorry about my friend" said Martha "He can be an idiot sometimes. What's your name?"

The girl stood there dumbfounded. These people were so different to anyone else she had ever seen before. The young woman who had just spoken to her, she had never seen anyone with that colour skin before. She felt embarrassed, but wanted to be polite. "Nicola" she said.

"My name is Martha" replied Martha. "This is Jack, and the guy standing over there is the Doctor".

Nicola then went on to explain the reason she had rushed out of her front door. She had received a message via the interlink informing her that she had not met the "inhabitant quality standard" due to a barely visible mole on her face. Nicola explained that on the Earth colony of Golgafrincham, every inhabitant has to meet a standard of beauty, decided by the colony's president. Anyone who does not has to join the Police and is forbidden from having a child.

Martha was astonished by this.  
"They can't do that!" she shouted.  
"It's the law" replied Nicola. "The law laid down by President Lohan. I need to get out of here."

* * *

In the government complex at the centre of the Earth Colony, a slightly skinny blonde haired man stood at a control panel. In front of him was a clipboard with a list of people who were to be seconded to the Police. His name was Charles Valli. Charles turned to a man sitting beside him.  
"Time to send out the constables" he said. "First on their list is a Miss Nicola Newton. Make sure they sedate her if she tries to cause any trouble. We don't want her running away do we?" 

The man selected the relevant options on his Computer screen and clicked the icon to download the information into the constables. Moments later in another part of the complex, a heavy gate opened and out marched a squad of tall, armoured, metal men.

* * *

The violent landing had made its mark on the TARDIS. The Doctor was sure that part of the dematerialisation circuit had rattled loose. Martha and Jack weren't as concerned about that as they were about the fate of Nicola. The Doctor had told them to let Nicola run off. This time, he didn't want to interfere and make whatever situation they found themselves in worse. Before Nicola left, Jack had promised that if she needed help, she could find him and that he would promise to get her to safety. Martha, much to her dissatisfaction, gave Nicola her phone in case an emergency arose.

* * *

Nicola found herself walking swiftly down a busy street not so far away from her house. She knew that her only chance of escape lay in getting as far from the colony as possible, where the Police wouldn't come looking for her. Unfortunately, she had no transport of her own since the government had disabled it when they had told her of her fate. 

She had only got a mile when she heard the heavy footsteps approaching. She froze on the spot wondering what she could do. Then, Nicola remembered the phone and Jack's promise. She battled with the menu system of Martha's phone and rang _TARDIS _as Jack had told her. All she could do was wait.

* * *

Jack placed the TARDIS's phone down and walked over to the Doctor.  
"Doctor, Nicola's in trouble. She said that the Police had found her" he said.  
"Right. Let's get going then. Alonsi!" was the Doctor's reply. 

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open Nicola's garage and found a vehicle that looked like a Car without wheels. Spotting that the Car's security system had disabled the ignition, he aimed his favourite tool at the ignition and the _Land Rover A-320_ roared into life.  
"All aboard" he shouted as they headed off to Nicola's rescue.

When the Doctor, Martha and Jack arrived at the place where Nicola said she would be, they found her cowering behind a small building. In the distance, the Doctor recognised the imposing figures of a squad of Cybermen marching toward them.

**End of Chapter One**


	3. Chapter Two: Prison Break

**Chapter Two – Prison Break**

"Quick! Everyone get into the Rover" shouted the Doctor.   
"What are Cybermen doing here?" asked Jack.   
"Dunno. Don't really care at the moment. Come on!" answered the Doctor.   
They bundled into the Rover and sped off in the opposite direction to the Cybermen. The Doctor's control of the vehicle was more than a little haphazard and came close to colliding with several other Rovers. Up ahead was very bad news. A second group of Cybermen had set up a road block. There was now nowhere else to go.   
"I guess that's the end of our escape then huh?!" said Jack.   
"Yes. I guess it is" replied the Doctor sorrowfully.

* * *

About half an hour later, the Doctor; Martha; Jack and Nicola found themselves in a concrete prison cell. All of them, apart from Jack, had been branded as "mingers". He was being held on a charge of assisting an escape, which meant that, although he wasn't going to face being turned into a Cyberman, he was going to be spend several years in jail.

"Can't you use your sonic screwdriver to get us out of here?" asked a terrified Martha.   
"Afraid not. The door's deadlock sealed" replied the troubled Doctor.   
"I'm sorry I got you into this" sobbed Nicola. "It's all my fault"   
"No it's not" replied Martha "We couldn't just let you get killed"

Jack sat silently in the corner, knowing full well that, whilst his friends were going to be taken to be converted, he would be moved to a smaller cell. He tried hard to come up with a plan to escape and rescue them when the time came. He knew that whilst the Cybermen were large and very strong, he was much faster than them. Getting through a tall thick perimeter gate was going to be a far greater challenge though. What he really needed was his gun, but the Cybermen had been careful to relieve him of it.

* * *

It was now nightfall. On the edge of the colony were a small band of people. None of them shared the qualities of the other Human occupants – they were a mixture of people young and old, slender and obese.   
"I saw 'em. The Police were out snatching today" said a short, middle aged tubby man. "They weren't the usual sort either. There was a dark skinned girl and a guy wearing a long brown coat"   
"Well, we better go get them then" signalled a young redhead woman. "If there are off-worlders here, we better go and introduce ourselves"

The party of three men and two women got into a large vehicle and drove cautiously through the colony towards the government complex. Although there was a much diminished Police presence at night, there was a large network of robot cameras trained to spot anything or anyone suspicious, and they had almost certainly been caught on camera within the government complex the last time they organised a break out. However, they were confident that the operation could be carried out with the minimum of fuss. The group relied on the fact that although the people deemed up to standard had a good life, there were many that were at least partly disillusioned with the unnatural selection that was taking place.

When they finally arrived at the government complex, the other woman, who would not look too out of place in the colony, got out of the vehicle and walked up to the Police guard on the gate. It was one of the men the group knew well and acted as an informant.   
"They're in the high security wing" he said softly. "Here, you'll need these passes. Good luck"   
He handed the striking woman two passes and opened the gate, allowing the vehicle to enter the complex.

As far as they were concerned, all was going to plan. However, they were unaware that Charles Valli was watching their movements via the network of security cameras dotted around the complex. There was a knock on the door.   
"Enter" shouted Charles.   
The guard who had admitted the group into the complex entered the room looking very nervous.   
"You have done well" Charles told him "If they are caught, you will get your pardon"   
"Thank you sir" replied the guard, still nervous.

The guard regretted what he had just done. He had been caught out the time before when he handed a security pass in sight of a hidden camera set up after Charles became convinced that the break-outs were at least partly assisted by someone inside the complex. He would have warned them if he was not being watched so intently, but now all he could hope for was that he would not see them again.

* * *

Jack was still pondering an escape plan. The Doctor was, rather predictably, attempting to "resonate concrete" – a plan with a one-hundred percent failure rate noted Martha. Jack was convinced the only reason he attempted it was to hide the fact that he had no real plan. Martha was growing ever more impatient by the minute. Consoling Nicola had not taken all of her frustration away. She walked over to the door and started banging on it.   
"Let us out!" she shouted desperately, making as much noise as possible.

It appeared as though Martha's desperate plan had worked. As she was banging on the door, the alarm started whaling.   
"Ah! I did it!" she shouted excitedly. "Get ready everyone."

Unfortunately for the group of five trying to break-in to the prison, the security card they had been given had set off a deafening alarm. All, apart from the red-haired woman, were panic stricken. Despite their pleas, she authoritatively told them to get out the explosives.   
"If we're going to get caught, then we will get caught trying – not running away!" she said.

Not convinced of this move, but seeing that their capture was inevitable anyway, the rest of the group helped out and blew out the door. They took their phasor weapons out of their belts and walked cautiously into the high security wing of the prison.   
"Duck" shouted the tubby man as one of the human Policeman fired at them. Luckily, the group's leader was more accurate and shot the Policeman in the forehead.   
"I've found the cell said the other woman"   
They ran towards the cell weapons facing forward and laid some explosives on the heavy door.   
"Stand back!" shouted the red-haired woman.

Inside the cell, the Doctor acknowledged the command and pushed everyone towards the back of the cell. With an almighty bang, the door collapsed and the Doctor; Martha; Jack; and Nicola rushed out of the cell.   
"Thank you" said Martha.   
"There's no time for introductions" Jack interjected "We've got to get out of here!"   
A red-haired woman beckoned them to follow her and the group made their way out of the prison wing.

The area outside was swarming with policemen; their guns all trained at the group of people trying to escape.   
"Drop your weapons and put your hands up!" shouted Charles wickedly.   
The Doctor noticed a power cable near the door. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at it and shouted "Duck!" The sonic screwdriver managed to penetrate the sleeving and caused an electrical short. The scene fell dark. The Policemen opened fire. With the cover of darkness, the group made their way into the large vehicle and drove at the Policemen. Moments later, they were at the perimeter and almost safe.

The power had come back on though, and it was up to them to get the heavy gate open. Jack smashed into the gatehouse and flicked the gate controls whilst the five members of the mysterious group fired at the pursuing Policemen. As the gate began to open, they bundled back in to their transport and sped away. They had escaped.

**End of Chapter Two**


	4. Chapter Three: Sherwood

**Chapter Three – Sherwood**

They sped out of the colony and into the baron wilderness beyond. There was a solitary path through the weeds and wild flowers that was just wide enough for the transport to get through. The journey was also a silent one – everyone felt very nervous, since their escape from the government complex had been a very narrow one. Nicola was clearly the most frightened of the escapees. After living all twenty four years of her life inside a place full of people who looked not too dissimilar from one another, being with a bunch of complete misfits deeply troubled her.

After about an hour, the transport finally came to a halt on the outskirts of a dense forest.  
"Follow me" said the red-haired woman authoritatively.  
The Doctor; Martha; Jack; and Nicola followed the woman deeper into the thick forest. They could see a dim light up ahead, which was the mark of a primitive settlement. Martha began to worry about what they had got themselves into since the experience so far seemed to have come straight out of _Robin Hood _mould. She was worried that she had been seconded into Robin Hood and his merry men. Except this wasn't Earth and it certainly wasn't historical England.

When they finally reached the settlement, they found a series of small wooden shacks built on and by old, towering trees in a small clearing. There was a camp fire in the middle of the clearing and a series of precariously suspended solar panels hung on the branches of some of the taller trees. There were several people with phasors keeping a look out for any nearby predators. In contrast to the other Human settlement, Jack noted, these people were quite ordinary in appearance. There were some strikingly beautiful people, but most would not have met the grade in the Golgafrincham colony. All in all, Jack estimated, there must have been about one hundred people living in this primitive settlement.

The Doctor was the first to speak.  
"Very nice place you have here. I'm impressed!" he said "Though, saying that, I don't think your electricity supply is very reliable".  
The red-haired woman ignored him and made her introductions.  
"Welcome", she announced, "to Sherwood. My name is Rhea Burns. I'm the chief of this camp"  
"Nice to meet you Rhea" said Martha. "My name's Martha. This is the Doctor; Jack; and Nicola"

At that moment a tall, skinny young man with long curly hair rushed towards them.  
"Uh oh. Watch out for the geek" said the Doctor under his breath. Martha giggled.  
"You've arrived. You've finally arrived!" said the geek excitedly. "I can't tell you how long we've waited for this moment"  
The Doctor, Martha and Jack were all puzzled. Helpfully, Rhea explained.

She told the newcomers that her group had successfully stolen some long range communications equipment from Golgafrincham with the aim of contacting a passing ship from Earth. They had wanted to inform Earth of the practises of President Lohan and to remove him from office.  
"We hoped", finished Rhea, "That you could help us remove him from his Presidency"

The Doctor, Jack and Martha all looked at each other worriedly. After what was a long minute, the Doctor answered.  
"I'm afraid we're not from Earth" he said carefully. "We're not really supposed to be here"  
"But we'll help you. Won't we Doctor?" said Martha.  
Jack rolled his eyes as the Doctor responded.  
"Well, I suppose we'll have to now" he said.  
"Thanks Martha" he added quietly.  
With that, Rhea showed them to a small, empty shack.

* * *

Over in the colony, Charles Valli had been given orders to search the house of the fugitive Nicola Newton. Just outside, he discovered a rather strange large blue box. He called over to one of the Constables to blast open the doors to the box. It obliged and took a shot at the door. Much to Charles's annoyance nothing happened - the door remained firmly, defiantly, locked. There was nothing left for him to do – the house itself had provided very few clues as to where the fugitives were heading and who their friends were. He activated his radio and asked for some assistance in moving the strange object, which he sent to the Police laboratory for further analysis. Apart from one blue box, the trail of the fugitives had gone cold. The president would not be pleased.

Half an hour later Charles was sat in his large office in the President's building. One of his juniors had sent him a long case file, full of camera footage, via the interlink. The only details the file provided him were that the escapees had left the colony and the place where they exited. Unimpressed, he left his office and walked towards the Police laboratory to get the latest on the blue box.

Several forensic scientists were standing around the object in awe. Charles walked up to the chief forensic scientist Newby, a middle aged woman with what Charles regarded as a low-life's accent.  
"Well?" he said simply, but impatiently.  
"Nothing yet. Well, nothing of much practical use anyway" the blonde, blue eyed scientist replied.

Newby explained to Charles that one of her assistants had searched a one hundred year old database named the Torchwood archive for "Police Telephone Box". The single, short result that the search had turned up was a list of classified entries omitted from the public copy of the archive. Charles's eyes opened. Then, a brief moment later, his surprise turned to worry. A classified entry meant one of two things. Either it was alien in origin which, given the English lettering, was highly unlikely, or it was a secret piece of Earth government property. Charles began to march hurriedly out of the Laboratory.

"Wait" said Newby. "There's another database which lists it a kind of direct telecommunications link to the nearest Police station".  
Charles turned round in confusion.  
"Then why can't you open it?" he asked, sneering at her.  
"Maybe it's just a practical joke" she replied in distain. "We will have to do some more tests on it".  
With that, Charles exited the laboratory and rushed to President Lohan's office.

* * *

Martha felt a very sharp pain in her trouser pocket. After a few seconds of gritting her teeth, she managed to pull the TARDIS key from out of it. It was flashing in the palm of her hand. Luckily for her, the pain had now stopped.  
"Doctor!" she shouted.  
The Doctor had felt the same sharp pain. He held the other TARDIS key in his hand and walked into the shack.  
"The TARDIS key, it's glowing" said Martha.  
"Yes, I know" the Doctor replied. "It means only one thing – they've found her. We've got to go back to the colony"

* * *

The meeting with President Lohan had been short. One clear instruction had been given out: "Find them!" Sheepishly, Charles Valli left the President's office and headed to the only lead that he had – the exit point at the edge of the city.

It didn't take him long to get there, along with a squad of Constables. By now the bright sun was setting and the planet's twin moons were making their appearance. Visibility was poor, but one of the Constables soon spotted the narrow track leading out of the colony. Charles called in for additional backup and moments later a further three squads of constables appeared.  
"Right. Follow that trail" Charles shouted.  
With a salute, the small army of Police marched along the trail with Charles at the front.

* * *

It was two hours later when one of the camp's lookouts spotted the mass of Police troops walking towards Sherwood. The alarm was raised and the camp became a fury of activity.  
"What's happening?" the Doctor asked as he rushed over towards Rhea.  
"It's the Police. They've found us" she replied gravely.

**End of Chapter Three**


	5. Chapter Four: Lohan's Legacy

**Chapter Four – Lohan's Legacy**

The Doctor did not seem too concerned about the arrival of the Cybermen. After being alerted to the attack on the TARDIS, he was determined to find it and no army of thugs was going to get in his way. The Cyberman Police force did not pillage the camp - they merely stood firm encircling it. From amongst the mass of metal men appeared a blonde haired man wearing a uniform that signified high office within the Police force. The man signalled to the three closest Cybermen to round up the Doctor, Martha and Jack. He appeared unconcerned about the rest of the camp folk.

* * *

Two hours later the Doctor, Martha and Jack were back inside the compound. This time, however, they had been taken to the Presidential palace for an audience with the President himself. Standing beside them were three Cybermen, who kept a close eye on the strangers. The Doctor sat impatiently, hoping to have an audience with the President - he did enjoy confronting the chief bad-guy. It wasn't the same for Martha and Jack though; the tall silver robot figures were quite a terrifying sight.

Moments later, Charles Valli opened the door to the President's office. He signalled to the Cybermen to escort them into the office. The Doctor stood up and paced towards the office door. Martha and Jack did the same in order to avoid the Cybermen man-handling them. Charles stopped the Cybermen outside the office door and closed them shut behind him.

Sat at the desk of the large, well polished office was a lean, tall, dark haired man wearing glasses. On the wall behind him was a large painting of a man wearing a white lab coat. Beneath the painting was a plaque that read: "Paul Lohan: 2965 – 3055".   
"My grandfather", announced the man at the desk to the intrigued threesome standing in front of him, "Paul Lohan. He was the founder of this great colony".   
He pointed towards a kind of large, thick translucent clipboard which lay on a shelf at the edge of the office. The Doctor picked it up, looked at the menu and selected the entry marked "Diary of Paul Lohan".

* * *

_The Diary of Paul Lohan. March 29__th__, 3032._

_The day has finally arrived. Four hundred and fifty people plus crew boarded the ship three hours ago. I find this enterprise strange when I remember my situation thirty-two years ago as a lowly hypermarket technician. It will take a month to get to planet 2213. I've got the next thirty days to decide on a name for the place._

_The crew are quite pleasant though some of the passengers have felt space sick. I'm quite surprised I'm not one of them. This is a new experience for me also. That's it I suppose. Hopefully I'll have more to write tomorrow._

* * *

"Interesting read this" commented the Doctor after about ten minutes. "So this grandfather of yours left Earth to create a world of good looking people?"   
"Yes" Replied the President proudly.   
"Well, that's one interpretation of his diary" replied the Doctor lazily. "You see, I reckon he was just a lonely man desperate for attention myself. He didn't really want a race of blonde beauties, just some mass appreciation."   
The Doctor paused.   
"I'm the Doctor by the way", he said sternly.

The mood turned sour as President Lohan considered the Doctor's comment a challenge to his authority.   
"You know nothing of my grandfather!" he retorted.   
Charles Valli advanced towards the Doctor. Jack intercepted him and held him back. Martha was quite worried that the Cybermen standing guard outside would burst in. Luckily, they didn't.

"Why have the Earth government sent you here?" boomed President Lohan. "Want to turn us into a puppet government do they? Well, you won't make me!"   
The Doctor considered this point. It would diffuse the situation if he told the truth – they had landed on the planet by mistake. But he was too good at poking his nose in and wasn't going to allow the genocide to continue.   
"The Earth Government hasn't heard from you for a while" he said "They are concerned. Frankly, so am I."

Martha broke up the conversation. She was more interested by the man in the painting. "Why did a guy like him want to set up a city of his own anyway? Surely with the money he had, he could have just got himself a big house and busty blonde like the rest of 'em?"   
President Lohan turned and looked at Martha.   
"It was his dream" he said. "He had no money when he left University. When he finally discovered the emotional inhibitor, he could get what he wanted."

"Bingo!" exclaimed the Doctor loudly. "I thought I'd heard the name Paul Lohan somewhere. They wanted him out didn't they, hmm? All those people with anything slightly wrong up top - he shoved something on them to keep 'em 'sane'. He was resented."   
"You'll never leave this planet to tell your friends" replied the President, sneering. "Charles – take them for conversion"

The Cybermen entered the room and dragged the Doctor, Martha and Rose away. Once they had been taken away President Lohan picked up his communicator.   
"How is the ship coming along?"

* * *

Back at the Sherwood camp Rhea was getting edgy. The Policemen had not moved since the Police chief had taken the three off-worlders. Did they have orders to trash the place? Did they have any plans at all? The answer soon came. The Policemen advanced towards the settlers and began to round them up. Rhea dashed towards her shack and gestured wildly at the geek to follow her. She had to stop them. Somehow.

"Did you figure out a way to control them?" she asked the geek hurriedly.   
"Not really" he replied. "There's a control signal, but it's protected by something.

Outside, the fire fight began. People were fighting for their lives knowing that, if they were caught, they would be processed and turned into Policemen. Rhea was desperate for a solution.

"I think I know how to do it!" announced the geek excitedly "It's a number; a special number." He paused in thought. "6879760. It's 6879760!"   
Frantically, he entered the number into his radio mechanism. Outside, moments later, the fire fight stopped. Rhea rushed outside to see what had happened. The Policemen were clutching their heads and falling slowly to the ground. They were dying in agony.

* * *

As they got nearer and nearer towards the conversion chamber, the Doctor, Martha and Jack could hear the screams of people being cut up and put into metal cases. There was no escape for them - they were about to be converted.

**End of Chapter Four**


	6. Chapter Five: The Invasion Plan

**Chapter Five – The Invasion Plan**

"Can you broadcast this signal to the Policemen in the colony?" asked Rhea frantically.  
"I guess so" replied the geek.  
"Well get to it" replied Rhea impatiently. "The Doctor and his friends will need our help!"  
Moments later, there was a loud and terrible screech coming out of Rhea's shack that filled the camp. Rhea and the geek held their ears. She ran back outside and rounded up a party of people to drive to the colony. Moments later, Rhea was inside a large transport carrying a backup radio transmitter with a band of people.

* * *

The silent weapon was proving effective on the Cybermen pushing the Doctor, Martha and Jack to the conversion chamber. Without warning, the Cybermen just froze on the spot as though waiting for instructions that never came. After untangling themselves from the grips of the Cybermen, the Doctor, Martha and Jack ran towards President Lohan's office. 

Martha was unsure that the President's office was the right place to be running towards. Jack shared her concern.  
"Shouldn't we be trying to get the TARDIS back Doctor?" he shouted above the deafening sound the just activated intruder alarm.  
"There's a lab not so far away. I saw a sign when we came in. I reckon they're trying to poke around inside the TARDIS" replied the Doctor. "Besides, I reckon these Cybermen do much more than Police work. They're giving their undesirables a higher purpose"

* * *

Newby, the forensic scientist, lazily slotted the key taken from the Doctor into the lock of the Police Telephone Box. As she turned it nothing happened. Charles, who stood beside her, was unimpressed. He passed her Martha's key. Once again, nothing happened. Newby handed both keys back to Charles.  
"Looks like your theory was wrong" the scientist said with a smirk.  
At that moment, there was a polite knock on the laboratory door. Charles and Newby looked at each other in disbelief. Charles walked over to the door and opened it violently. There was no-one there. He took a pace outside, but little did he know that Jack was pressed against the wall. In a split second, Jack struck a fierce blow to Charles's face and grabbed his gun. Jack signalled to the Doctor and Martha and, together, they entered the lab. Charles was on the floor clutching his face. 

"Everybody back towards the window" shouted Jack, wielding Charles's gun.  
The scientists shuffled back towards the window nervously looking at Jack. Martha looked around hoping to catch a glimpse of the TARDIS keys. She couldn't see them. Outside, Martha could hear someone hobbling away. She turned to Jack and then she rushed out of the lab after the head of Police. Confident that the scientists couldn't get into the TARDIS, Jack rushed after her. The Doctor, on the other hand, looked around the lab. On one of the workbenches he spotted something of particular interest – a fusion drive unit.

"Ah, so that's it" he said, smiling at the scientists. "You want to take over the Earth don't you?" Spotting that both Martha and Jack had gone, the Doctor ended his conversation there and walked casually out of the lab. Peering behind the door as he did so, he announced "back in a mo".

* * *

Charles Valli burst into the President's office. Exhausted, he gave his brief report.  
"It's no good sir; the constables are all out of action. Something's messed up their control signal."  
"My dear Mr Valli", replied the President, "you have only had access to the basic models."  
He flicked a hidden switch on his desk, which revealed a secret entrance. Out of the entrance walked two Cybermen, completely unaffected by the signal the Police constables had been affected by. 

At that moment, Martha and Jack burst into the office wielding Charles's weapon. The Cybermen turned to face them. With their right arms outstretched, the Cybermen aimed their weapons at Martha and Jack.  
"Don't shoot!" shouted the President. He turned to Jack.  
"I'd strongly advise that you drop your weapon" he said. "No fancy blocking signal of yours will affect these soldiers; they have an intelligence of their own"  
The Doctor walked into the room.  
"Not interrupting anything am I?" he said cheerily as he entered. Then he turned to face the Cybermen. His face sunk. The Cybermen in front of him weren't simple slaves; they seemed to be more like the sort he'd encountered on many previous occasions: cold, ruthless and completely uncontrollable.

"Nice of you to drop by" said the President, leering at the Doctor. "Your blue box in the laboratory intrigues me. It's certainly no ordinary craft and it's classified."  
The Doctor knew immediately what the President was suggesting.  
"Oh, you'll never get into my ship. You and your Cybermen faithful aren't going to succeed in taking over the Earth. I won't let you."

President Lohan rolled his eyes lazily.  
"It's not that important anyway" he said. "I already have a craft capable of the journey and I have an army ready and waiting to pilot it. Your craft would make the Earth less suspicious, but I gather from your presence here that they already are"  
He signalled to the two Cybermen.  
"Take them into the Ark. I want them to witness our victory".  
Once again, the Doctor, Martha and Jack found themselves in the grip of their metal adversaries and heading into a large, dark hanger.

In total fear, Charles rushed out of the President's office and ran towards the Police headquarters. President Lohan was unconcerned. Soon Charles Valli and his fellow officers would cease to be of any use. The Earth would be his next project. In around a month's time, the model race he had established on Golgafrincham would be the model for all Human beings.

* * *

On the outskirts of the colony Rhea peered through her binoculars looking for any signs of the Policemen she had hoped would have been de-activated. To her surprise she could see not a single one.  
"Coast's clear" she announced cautiously.  
The transport began its slow and steady progress to the government complex. 

Nicola had joined the expedition, hoping to rescue her new-found friends. She was deeply uncomfortable with the lack of robot Policemen patrolling the streets. Something was wrong, and she was sure it wasn't to do with the rebel's control signal either.  
Rhea received a message from the camp. It was from the geek:  
_Sorry to disturb you, but there's no power at the camp. Hope the signal's worked. You're on your own from now on._  
"Great!" Rhea sighed. "We'll just have to hope our backup works"

When they reached the compound, they found a pair of Human Police officers guarding the gate. As soon as they spotted the transport, the two Police officers opened fire on it and raised the alarm. Nicola dropped to the floor of the vehicle at shots ricocheted over her head. The Policemen were no match for the two dozen rebels though and they were soon disposed of. Rhea jumped out and crept carefully towards the gate. She grabbed one of the passes and, reaching though an opening in the gate, pushed the security pass into a slot and watched the gate open. She watched as the vehicle entered the compound.

It wasn't long before other Policemen, all armed to the teeth with large rifles, came bounding out of the main Police building. A fire fight was soon underway. Nicola, not wanting to take part in the fighting, sheltered behind the transport and waited for it to end.

The fight didn't last long. After a couple of minutes everyone stood silent, staring wide eyed at the roof of the Presidential palace. A large section of the roof began to slide open. When the roof had opened fully, a large spaceship emerged from it. The Cybermen's spacecraft, bound for Earth, was about to take off with the Doctor, Martha and Jack onboard.

**End of Chapter Five**


	7. Chapter Six: Journey's Beginning

**Chapter Six – Journey's Beginning**

The Doctor, Martha and Jack found themselves locked inside some kind of storage room aboard the Cybermen's spacecraft. Since being dragged from President Lohan's office, they had been knocked unconscious, dressed in white boiler suits and their possessions confiscated. From the vibrations, they knew that they were moving.

Of the three, Martha was the most frightened. In her time with the Doctor she had been in a great number of sticky situations but this was one of the worst. What made it so bad was being stranded on a ship moving ever further away from the one thing that she could rely on for safety: the TARDIS. She had grown quite attached to the strange looking blue box when she was effectively on her own in 1913. She looked across to the Doctor for reassurance, but he was deeply troubled and sat silently in a corner of the room, deep in thought.  
"There must be a way to stop them" he murmured to himself "But how?"

* * *

Back in the government compound, the two armies were still watching the spacecraft ascend into the heavens. After a brief moment, Rhea called out to her opponent.  
"Mr Valli" she called "What's happening here?" 

Charles Valli looked worriedly back at the red haired woman who had addressed him. He paused for a moment before uttering a very tense reply:  
"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore"

Rhea looked at him in bemusement. He had clearly been under a lot of stress. Her main concern was not for him, but the state of the robotic Policemen.  
"What's happened to your robot army?" she asked  
"They've stopped working. All of them have stopped working. Except…"  
He stopped; unsure whether he wanted to tell his opponent what he had witnessed in the President's office. Charles Valli felt vulnerable – the most vulnerable he had ever been in his life. The Golgafrincham he knew up until ten minutes ago had been replaced with something new and very terrifying.

By mutual agreement, a ceasefire was agreed by both sides a few minutes later. As neither side knew what had just happened, they decided to join forces, if only temporarily, to find out what was afoot in the Presidential palace. As they walked around the palace they found it eerily silent. Charles, who was expecting several patrols of the new, advanced robotic Policemen, felt incredibly tense. Rhea had never been inside the palace before so was having an interesting time strolling down the corridors, looking for anything of interest.

The party finally came to a halt outside the laboratory.  
"I wonder what's in here" said Rhea in a rebellious tone as she opened the door.  
The lab was empty. Almost. In one corner of the lab sat a large and unusual blue box. Rhea looked at it quizzically whilst Charles stood silent, deep in thought.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"I don't know" replied Charles. "As far as I am told, it's a classified piece of Earth government property. President Lohan thinks it's a kind of spaceship"  
"Belonging to the Doctor?" Rhea added  
"Yes".

They left the lab, slightly disappointed with the lack of information gained from it, and headed towards President Lohan's office. Charles knocked on the door. There was no reply. Tentatively, he pushed it open. Like the laboratory, the President's office was deserted. After checking that the room was indeed empty, he marched over to the President's desk. Rhea was outraged when she saw that Lohan was not there.  
"Where is Lohan?!" she roared at Charles.  
Charles ignored her completely as he fumbled under the desk looking for the switch that would reveal the secret entrance. After two minutes of searching, he found it.

* * *

President Lohan was sitting on the bridge of the Ark. Working busily around him at shiny, new controls were his elite Cybermen. He had never seen space this close and personal before and felt truly excited at the prospect of spending the next thirty days in its presence. It felt, at that moment, as though the reason for the voyage was unimportant. Just as his grandfather had dreamed of leaving Earth for a new life, so he was leaving Golgafrincham, albeit temporarily, to realise his. 

Whilst he was admiring the view, a Cyberman walked over to him and raised its right arm in salute. Devoid of speech, it pointed to the control panel it had been working at. Lohan got out of his chair and walked over to it. A light was flashing urgently: the hanger had been opened. Turning to the Cyberman, he ordered it to animate its colleagues laying wait, inconspicuously, in the colony. With another salute, the Cyberman acknowledged Lohan's command and took the appropriate actions. Confident that the problem had been dealt with effectively, Lohan leant back in his chair and admired the view of space once more.

* * *

The Doctor, Martha and Jack jumped as the door to the store room opened. A tall dark haired man, wearing a lab coat and spectacles, walked in alongside two Cybermen.  
"I trust you are all of good health?" he asked officiously.  
They nodded. The man asked an unseen Cybermen to bring three plates of food in. Upon receiving the food, the Doctor encouraged Martha and Jack to say thank you, which they did. Seeing that the prisoners were content, the man and the three Cybermen left the room and locked the door behind them. 

Martha and Jack looked at the Doctor suspiciously, concerned that he was not the real McCoy.  
"Doctor, what were those things?" Martha asked  
"They're Cybermen" replied Jack. "Real Cybermen; not those ones they've been using as Policemen"  
"Doctor" Jack continued "Why are you acting so calm? They're going to invade Earth. Shouldn't you be worried?"  
The Doctor sat in silence for a while before he answered.  
"I'm not so sure they are real Cybermen" he replied "More advanced than those rent-a-thugs we encountered before, but real Cybermen wouldn't take this level of control lying down. There's something more to them than meets the eye. I wonder what it is".  
Holding that thought, the Doctor tucked into his meal.

* * *

On Golgafrincham, Charles, Rhea and their party looked around in awe at the strange room they had just entered. Rhea managed to find a light switch, which illuminated the large spacecraft hanger. Amongst the fuelling rigs and dirty steel workbenches was a collection of mystical engine parts. None of them had ever known space travel. In the establishment of the colony, it was agreed that communications with the Earth would be cut and that the inhabitants would not experience space travel ever again. For the new settlers, it was a one way journey. Their descendants had been told a little of Golgafrincham's establishment, but the space travel part was always overlooked as an irrelevance. For their descendants looking in awe at the hangar this was an incredible site. 

In one corner of the hangar, the tubby member of Rhea's party found a second door. On it was an electronic lock that required a key card to open. He called over to her.  
"Wonder what's in here" she said. "Got a card Charles?"  
He shook his head.  
"If I'd have known about this place, I'd never have let her in" he thought to himself.  
Rhea was weighing up the use of explosives on the door. Whatever was beyond it, she didn't want to destroy it. This discovery was too great a one to destroy.

Just then, the door between the hangar and the President's office slid rapidly and violently shut. The lights dimmed, and the door at which Rhea stood began to slide open. Out of it walked an army of Cybermen.

In horror, Rhea ordered everyone back to the main door. Nicola tried frantically to open it, but it was in no mind to let them out.  
"Do not resist" barked a Cyberman "If you resist, you will be deleted. Resistance is futile"

**End of Chapter Six**


	8. Chapter Seven: True Identity

**Chapter Seven – True Identity**

Fearing for his life, one of the Police officers fired his phasor weapon repeatedly into the Cyberleader's chest. The shots were ineffective. In retaliation, it fired a single, deadly shot at the Policeman. Everyone stood against the heavy door in horror at the Cybermen at the limp body of the man slumped onto the ground. It repeated its command:  
"Drop your weapons. Do not resist!"  
Rhea reached for the explosives in her bag, but was stopped immediately by Nicola.  
"Don't be stupid. They'll kill us" Nicola whispered to her.  
"They'll kill us anyway" Rhea replied. "I don't want to become one of them" she added with a sharp glance at the Cyber-leader.

The Cyberleader appeared to have overheard their conversation. Immediately it ordered its fellow Cybermen to disable the Human beings huddled against the door. Before Rhea had time to set off her explosives she was stunned and dropped to the floor unconscious. One by one the Cybermen dragged their captives towards the second door to the hanger. After all had left the hanger, the door slid shut.

* * *

"Mission accomplished" smiled a very pleased Lohan, who had been observing the events through a nearby monitor on the ship's bridge. Now that his plans were fully in place, he felt unceremoniously alone in his moment of victory. Contracting a case of Blofeld syndrome, he asked for the prisoners being held in the storage room to be bought to him on the bridge. With a salute, a Cyberman enacted his request.

* * *

The prisoners were sat close together pressed against the wall adjacent to the door. Martha was feeling nervous and Jack wasn't too comfortable either.  
"Don't worry. They'll come" said the Doctor, smiling. "Sooner or later, our President Lohan will have the urge to spill the beans to us; show us how clever he is"  
Martha tensed as she heard the sound of heavy footsteps marching down the corridor outside.  
"That'll be them now" beamed the Doctor expectantly. 

The door opened and in walked a group of three Cybermen. They stood still as they looked blankly at the wall opposite. The Doctor jumped up and greeted them from the corridor, alongside Martha and Jack. The Cybermen turned cumbersomely around.  
"Hi there. You'll be looking for us then. Sorry to disappoint you, but we're a bit busy now. Bye!" the Doctor said jubilantly, just before he pressed the button to lock the Cybermen in.  
"Thing about Cybermen" he announced to his companion, as though giving a school lesson, "they're not very fast. They make terrible dancers"

They ran down the corridor, which took them deeper into the ship. Jack was on the lookout for their belongings and, more importantly, the TARDIS. He spotted neither before reaching the elevator. As they bolted inside it, an alarm sounded.  
"That'll be for us then" said Martha, annoyed.  
"Who else?" replied the Doctor cheekily.

The Doctor pressed the button marked "bridge" and the lift began to ascend. Martha and Jack both looked at each other puzzled, why was the Doctor taking them to the very place they were going to be dragged to anyway? With a satisfying ping, the lift stopped and the doors opened. Laid out gloriously in front of them was the ship's bridge.

President Lohan turned around in his chair and met the gaze of the Doctor, who began to walk around the bridge, ignorant of the Cybermen working with a ruthless efficiency at the control panels.  
"Nice ship you've got here" he announced "Though, I don't think much of the crew" he added, looking intently at a Cyberman working at a nearby control panel.  
Lohan was bemused and a little unhinged at the prisoners' entrance.  
"How did you break out? I told them to disarm you!" he demanded.  
"Oh, you know, nimble feet and all that" replied the Doctor casually whilst doing a little tap dance to prove his point "Your upgrades are seelooow"

Still in manic mode, the Doctor tapped on the side of the nearest Cyberman and asked it for its purpose. The Cyberman swiftly grabbed his arm and gave no reply.  
"Don't talk much, do they?" he commented  
"Why do they need to, when you do all the talking?!" replied Lohan angrily.  
"But what are these things?" asked Martha. "They're not like the others in the colony."

Lohan thought for a moment. He had been thinking of how he would tell them his plan to defeat the Earth, but being a scientist proud of what he had achieved, the question the strange woman put a menacing, dictatorial smile back on his face.  
"My elite Cybermen" he announced. "Forged from blueprints, artefacts and matter bought back from a scientific expedition to Telos thirty years ago. Using my knowledge of genetics I managed to grow a basic Cyber-brain from stem cells the archaeologists brought back. Of course, that was only the beginning. I had to teach these creatures how to behave and act: their primitive minds too unpredictable for my needs. Some of them are given the power of speech, of course, but the rest are trained simply to obey."

As a student of medicine, Martha was quietly impressed at the achievement. The rest of her felt quite different though.

"I'm impressed!" she said a little sarcastically. "But surely they eventually have major health problems and die?"

"The Human-based simpletons do. Those primitive Cyborgs last only six months before expiring. These Cybermen have an exceptionally well-formed DNA structure that allows them to live for hundreds of years!"

Martha's eyes opened. It was a fascinating if troubling insight, which meant that escape from a large spaceship being piloted towards Earth was not going to be as easy as the escape from the Police cells back on Golgafrincham.

* * *

Slowly, both Rhea and Nicola recovered from the paralysing ray of the Cybermens' weapons. Both had splitting headaches but were able, with some effort, to glance around the room. The room was a stark plain white room made from thick concrete walls. From the damp smell they assumed they were underground somewhere. There were five other women in the cell with them, three of them Policewomen and the other two were from Sherwood. Stood menacingly by the door was a pair of Cybermen. 

"What do you want us for?!" Rhea shouted at the Cybermen. Neither answered her. Neither could answer her.  
"Come on. Explain!" she continued, getting increasingly hysterical. Again, there was no response from either Cyberman.  
"I don't think they can speak" said Nicola carefully. "Maybe they've been turned off"  
Rhea looked at Nicola conspiratorially. As the other women were slowly coming round, Rhea walked towards the Cybermen. As she got closer and closer she felt increasingly confident that they had been de-activated. She squeezed round the back of one in order to reach the door control, but as she did so, the nearest Cyberman sprung to life.  
"Rhea, watch out!" screamed Nicola. Rhea ducked her head just as the Cyberman swung its arm at her head. Instead of hitting her head, it smashed its fist through the door controls. It writhed as the electricity flowed through its metallic body, sparks flying from its outer casing. Seconds later it was on the floor in a smoking heap, some kind of gunge excreting from its chest unit. The other Cyberman just stood there lifeless.

Sensing a chance to escape, Rhea shouted to Nicola and the other women to help her open the door. One of the Sherwood pair, a technician by trade, carefully pulled two wires from the Cyberman and pressed them together. With a satisfying click, the door slid open. The seven women rushed out of the room, leaving the Cyberman behind.

* * *

The Cybermen on the Spaceship suddenly froze without warning. The Doctor freed his arm from the Cyberman and walked over to join Martha, Jack and Lohan. Lohan was in shock.  
"What's happened to them?" he said, looking at the Cybermen desperately. 

Seconds later, he received his reply. The Cybermen sprang back to life, but not as Lohan expected. Two of the Cybermen marched towards the lift and stood directly against the door whilst the others advanced on the Human beings in front of them.

**End of Chapter Seven**


	9. Chapter Eight: A New Regime

**Chapter Eight – A New Regime**

"Get back to your posts!" shouted Lohan frantically. "I said get back!"  
The Cybermen took no notice of this order as they viciously approached the four Humans retreating towards the large navigation window.  
"What's happened to them?" asked Martha worriedly.  
"When he mentioned that he trained them to obey. Well, he forgot to tell you that training isn't the right word for it" replied the Doctor.  
"Well what did he mean?" asked Jack frantically.  
"He should have said conditioned. And, as we know, conditions change."

The Doctor; Martha; Jack; and Lohan were now cowering at the window. They had retreated as far as they were able to. The advancing Cybermen stopped directly in front of them; trapping them in. At that moment the lift door opened. Out of the lift walked a Cyberman with an unusual shaped helmet. It was different to the others: taller, better armoured and with what resembled a brain displayed inside an egg-shaped metal head. It was the Cyberleader, which marched towards the Humans. The other Cybermen parted to let it through. It opened its mouth piece and began to speak.

"President Lohan of the Earth Colony Golgafricham you will follow me. You will be Cyber-converted" it said.  
"What will you do with the rest of us?" asked the Doctors  
"You will be assessed later"  
"You didn't bring a conversion chamber along?" the Doctor asked Lohan desperately. "Tell me you didn't!"  
Lohan didn't answer. Unfortunately for him he had. Two Cybermen walked over to Lohan, clutched both his arms and dragged him into the lift.

When Lohan, the Cyberleader and the two Cybermen were in the lift, the other Cybermen on the bridge grabbed hold of the Doctor, Martha and Jack in readiness for the lift's return. When it did return, they were shoved inside it and sent back down to the cargo deck. Without his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor was unable to stop the lift shooting downwards.  
"Jack, I need you to find our stuff" he said urgently. "We haven't got much time"  
"Until what?" asked Martha.  
"Until the Cybermen convert Lohan. We need him to tell us how to shut them down" replied the Doctor.

When the lift doors opened, the three Cybermen that the Doctor had tricked were standing in front of them. The Cybermen went for the Doctor, Martha and Jack, but luckily Jack was able dodge them and run down the corridor. The Doctor and Martha were pushed back to the store room whilst the third Cyberman marched menacingly after Jack.

"Captured again!" said Martha angrily. "I hope they've remembered to bring the TARDIS along"  
"Ah, well, I forgot to tell you about that" said the Doctor sheepishly "I programmed the TARDIS to sit still. I didn't want it being moved again"  
"So it's still in the lab then?"  
"Well, yes, I hope so – unless they've tried to force it open of course"  
"What happens then?"  
"Well, it takes off for a bit and lands somewhere nearby"  
Martha sighed and rolled her eyes. Trust the Doctor to make a silly decision like that!

* * *

Jack was having great difficulty traversing the maze of corridors and rooms that made up the cargo deck. He hoped that he would find their possessions before the Cyberman that was tailing him was able to call some of his friends for help. He reached a room at the very back of the ship, opened the door and locked it shut behind him. 

He rifled through the crates until finally he found a crate marked "Confiscated items". He slammed his fist through it and, to his relief, found his, the Doctor's and Martha's possessions. Just as he made his find, however, the Cyberman began to bang furiously on the door, making substantial dents in it. It would not be long before it broke through.  
Rifling through some more crates, he was finally able to locate one full of heavy-impact phasor rifles. Prizing one out of its case, he walked over to the door and unlocked it. With a crash, the Cyberman pulled the door off its runner. Jack ducked, took aim, and fired the phasor. It didn't work. Hurriedly, Jack grabbed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. He opened up the rifle; stuffed the screeching sonic screwdriver into the chamber; and tried again. This time, the Cyberman was shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.  
"Well. That seemed to work!" said a shocked and relieved Jack Harkness.  
He left the room, rifle slung across his shoulder and dragging the crate behind him.

* * *

Rhea and Nicola were engaged in an activity not dissimilar to Jack. They, along with the other women they rescued, were cautiously walking down a dimly lit corridor towards the hangar. As they were doing so, they heard a man shouting at the top of his voice. It was Charles Valli, who was struggling to get himself free of the Cybermen's cyber-conversion machine. The women looked at Rhea expectantly as they heard his screams.  
"Oh, all right!" she said to them as she crept towards the door. 

The door itself was wide open. Inside the room, strapped to a basic metal table, was Charles. Standing around yielding several pieces of surgical equipment were half a dozen Cybermen busy preparing Charles for the operation that would turn him into a Cyberman. With no weapon capable of disabling a Cyberman amongst them, the group of women frantically looked up and down the corridor for something that may be of use.

In a small room further down the corridor was a possible answer. For some reason unknown to a bemused Nicola, there was a collection of high-voltage Taser weapons piled on a table. It was clear to her that the bunker she was in had not been used in many decades. Taser weapons were a popular method of crowd control fifty years ago. But when the previous president Lohan, the father of the current one, began to introduce his robot like beings to the Police force, rebels stole these weapons from the Police and began to attack them. In one Police raid on their hideout, the rebels had thwarted the metal Constables and forced the human officers alongside them to retreat.  
"Maybe", thought Nicola to herself, "the President doesn't know about this place."

After staring at the Tasers in fascination, Nicola grabbed the lot and showed them to an excited Rhea.  
"Perfect!" she said, a little too loud for comfort.

With all seven women equipped with Tasers, they headed back towards the room. Luckily, the Cybermen were still getting ready, although Charles had been sedated.

In a flash, the women burst into the room, catching the unsuspecting Cybermen unawares. At close range, the women pointed their Tasers at the heads of the approaching Cybermen and fired. After a few nervous seconds, the Cybermen became disorientated. Rhea and Nicola rushed to free Charles from the table and, with a great deal of effort, dragged him out of the room. However, the Tasers had had only a limited effect on the Cybermen, who recovered quickly and marched relentlessly towards the group of women.

* * *

Back on the spaceship, Jack had reached the room in which the Doctor and Martha were being held. This time, the door had been jammed open and the two Cybermen guarding them were standing in the doorway facing them. Jack saw the Doctor and Martha sat on the opposite side of the room. The Doctor looked worried though, and he was right to be, for Martha was unconscious. To make matters worse, Jack could hear the sound of the lift descending. It would not be long before he had company. 

**End of Chapter Eight**


	10. Chapter Nine: A Change of Fortune

**Chapter Nine – A Change of Fortune**

Despite the odds, Jack continued with plan A. Expecting a heated argument with the Doctor, Jack swiftly destroyed the two Cybermen standing guard and rushed into the storage room with their possessions.  
"This what you wanted?" said Jack jubilantly and with a smile.  
The Doctor pulled everything out of the crate and placed his hand in his right trouser pocket. To his horror, the thing he most wanted now wasn't there.  
"My sonic screwdriver; where is it?" he asked hurriedly.  
Jack tapped the edge of his phasor rifle.  
"Right here" he said with another smile.

At that moment, they heard the lift doors open. The Doctor and Jack looked at each other in horror. Jack immediately jabbed at the door control but, apart from a hideous feeble whirring noise coming from inside the mechanism, nothing happened. Jack cursed under his breath and rushed over to help the Doctor carry Martha out of the room. When they reached the corridor, a squad of six Cybermen marched menacingly towards them. Realising there wasn't time to pick them all off, Jack fired at the ceiling in front of them. It collapsed, alongside a series of heavy pieces of military equipment, burying the Cybermen. Leaving the Doctor to keep hold of Martha, Jack seized the initiative to relieve the Cybermen of their weapons.

What he hadn't countered on, however, was the fact that the Cybermen were not dead. As he walked over one of them, it grabbed his leg and held him back. Jack fired a shot at it and forced his leg out of its grasp. The second time, he wasn't so lucky. As he pressed the trigger nothing happened. Noticing that Jack was writhing in pain, the Doctor came over to help him and, with a mammoth struggle, managed to free Jack's leg. With two of the Cybermen's weapons captured, the Doctor and Jack walked over to Martha.  
"What happened to her?" asked a concerned Jack.  
"She struggled, so they hurled her into the cell." the Doctor replied, with a great deal of distain and anger in his voice.

Sensing they hadn't much time, they agreed to hide Martha somewhere safe where she could recover. Jack found the perfect hiding place and locked the door. The Doctor tried to add a bit of extra security to the door using his sonic screwdriver, but Jack's prior application of the device had left it completely drained of power, which made the Doctor very unhappy. He scowled at Jack as he pocketed his beloved contraption and paced towards the lift. They were going to get information from Lohan and confront the Cyberleader for the last time. They both prayed that it wasn't too late to complete the former.

When they emerged from the lift on the medical deck they found the area swarming with Cybermen, who quickly turned around to intercept the new arrivals. The Doctor nodded his head at Jack, who was wielding one of the Cybermen's weapons. He had given him permission to destroy it, which Jack sensed, meant a great deal to the Doctor despite the many previous occasions in which he condemned an alien race to death.

Jack quickly fired at the Cybermen, who returned fire. Dodging the fire fight, the Doctor, sensing his opportunity, sprinted down the corridor towards the Operating Theatre with one of the Cybermen's weapons in his arms. Noticing this, Jack fought viciously to keep the Cybermen occupied.

The Doctor peered through a circular window in one of the double doors to the Operating theatre. Inside were three Cybermen performing the full conversion operation on Golgafrincham's President. Carefully, he opened the door and walked in. The Cybermen quickly noticed his presence and determinedly marched towards him.  
"Oh I so don't want to do this" said the Doctor quietly as he raised his Cyber-weapon in anger.  
Seeing no alternative as the Cybermen approached him, he pointed the weapon and killed them whilst darting around the room. When he had disposed of them he looked solemnly at the three creatures lying on the floor.

Lohan was deeply sedated. It would take a lot to wake him. The Doctor spotted a defibrillator in the corner of the room and looked at it thoughtfully. He knew that he would be taking an enormous risk in using it. It could cause Lohan's heart to stop working, especially since the Cybermen were bound to have used very powerful sedatives. He hadn't much time though. He applied the gel to Lohan's torso and then placed the two paddles on top. He charged the device to a mid-range voltage and discharged the electricity into Lohan's body. With a large gulp, Lohan regained consciousness and stared wide-eyed at the Doctor.  
"What did you just do to me?" he said, still struggling for breath.

The Doctor didn't answer him. Instead he looked solemnly at the metal limbs that the Cybermen had attached to his body. Lohan noticed this and was close to tears.  
"I'm sorry" said the Doctor "but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you a few questions. Is there a way of stopping them?"

Realising that he had been defeated and sensing that he was close to his final hour of life, Lohan lay on the bed for a while contemplating his situation. The Doctor saw the horror in Lohan's eyes, but pressed him for an answer.  
"There's a self-destruct button. It's located in the upper engine room" he replied miserably.  
"Are the Cybermen aware of it?"  
"I programmed them not to be, but now, well, I'm not sure"  
The Doctor stood there for a moment, deep in thought and then began to walk out the room.  
"Doctor." asked Lohan feebly "What's going to happen to me? I can't live like this"  
"We'll see" replied the Doctor. "We'll see"  
The Doctor pushed open the doors and ran back to check up on Jack.

Jack was in the lift, firing his weapon frantically at the Cybermen. He had been badly injured and his skin was burning all over. He barely had the strength to hold the weapon, let alone fire it. The Doctor was a welcome sight as he dashed into the lift and jabbed the lift buttons. The rear panel of the lift was in tatters from the sustained firing as the doors began to close. Soon after the doors closed, Jack collapsed on the floor.

It seemed as though the Cybermen really hadn't considered the self-destruct button concealed amongst the large engines dominating the large, dimly lit room. The Doctor dragged Jack out of the lift and let him rest on the floor to aid his recovery. It wasn't long before Jack gasped back to life again. He looked around him.  
"Where are we?" he asked the Doctor.  
"Upper engine room" replied the Doctor. "We're here to find a great big threatening button" he added cheerfully.  
"Oh, that's great" replied a confused Jack.

It wasn't easy to find and, as soon as they did, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a group of Cybermen – including the Cyberleader itself. They had been concealing themselves in the shadows; waiting for them to arrive. The Doctor and Jack were temptingly close to the button itself and pinned up against a wall. Jack felt along the wall and discovered a crowbar. Carefully, he lifted it off its bracket whilst the Doctor distracted the Cyberleader's attention.  
"So what's the grand plan?" the Doctor asked menacingly.  
"All Humans will become Cybermen. You will be like us. We will survive" it replied in its slow electronic voice.

After a nudge from Jack, the Doctor caught on to Jack's plan. He kept the Cyberleader engaged in conversation.  
"You always say that" he said excitedly "But it's not really that true. Just look at you – products of a Human scientist. You're very existence is questionable. You don't realise what you really are. Slaves"

As the Cyberleader stepped toward the Doctor, Jack leapt towards the button. The Cybermen grabbed at him, but the Doctor thrust Jack forwards. Jack was just able to smash open the case and press the large button as the Cybermen tried to pull him away. He thumped the button with his fist to make sure. Moments later, the Cybermen relinquished their grip and, with a gunge-like substance spewing from their chest units, dropped slowly to the floor. They were no more.

**End of Chapter Nine**


	11. Chapter Ten: Looking to the Future

**Chapter Ten – Looking to the Future**

Rhea and Nicola dragged Charles's limp body away from the approaching Cybermen as fast as they could. Unlike the Ark, these Cybermen were very much alive and dangerous. The women quickly decided that their only chance of escape was to get back up to the hangar and back into President Lohan's office. The Cybermen were not determined for them to die just yet, so they cautiously followed their movements with weapons lowered. They wanted to find out more from the man named Charles Valli.

When the group reached the door to the hangar, the women struggled to locate the switch that would open it. When the Cybermen were right on top of them they tugged at Charles with the hope of re-capturing him and extracting the valuable information contained in his head. Rhea and Nicola struggled to keep hold of Charles. Luckily for them the door opened just in time and the other five women were close enough to stun the Cybermen just long enough for the metal giants to relinquish their grip on Charles.

Once the door had closed they had achieved half of their objective. The Cybermen were now between them and a locked door. Whilst Nicola and one of the Policewomen looked after Charles, Rhea was busily finding a way to keep the door locked permanently. She didn't have long to do it either - The Cybermen were already banging furiously on the door. Just as she began to start her work there was a crackling noise coming from one of the pieces of radio equipment in the far corner of the hangar. Rhea turned around momentarily to watch a red light flash on the machine. She gestured urgently to Nicola to pick up the receiver.

Nicola felt a big sense of relief as she picked up the receiver and heard Jack's voice at the other end.  
"Hi there" Jack said merrily "Glad to hear you're OK".  
Nicola could here some loud fumbling in the background as the Doctor urged Jack to hand the radio receiver to him. The tone in the Doctor's voice wasn't so jolly.  
"What's happening over there?" he asked Nicola urgently "Are the Cybermen still about?"

As if in reply, the Cybermen smashed through the door connecting the underground bunker to the hangar. The Doctor heard this over the radio.  
"I can stop them, but I'm going to need some time. Can you stall them?" he asked impatiently.  
"We can, but not for long" replied Nicola worriedly.  
"Just do the best you can. I'll think of something. I'll save you".  
And with that, Nicola hung up the receiver and turned to face the Cybermen.

* * *

On the bridge of the Ark; deep space radio equipment stacked on the desk in front of him, the Doctor worked furiously with the tools he had scattered over the floor to adjust the Cybermen's communication mechanism and disable those who remained on Golgafrincham. He asked Jack to check up on Martha and Lohan.  
"I wish I had my sonic screwdriver" the Doctor said, disgruntled as Jack entered the lift. 

Picking up a small flathead screwdriver, he tweaked the Radio Frequency tuning circuit. He looked around him for a suitable Cyberman candidate to provide him with the operating frequency the Cybermen used to communicate. With relative ease he located the Cyberman's transmit/receive circuit inside its helmet, wired it up to one of the power supplies and joined it to an Oscilloscope.  
"Good old Frequency Modulation" he said, smiling "You can't beat a good old FM radio".

* * *

Whilst the Doctor was fiddling with the radio equipment, Jack opened the door to the Operating theatre in which Martha and Lohan were laid down in bed. Martha began to regain consciousness.  
"Wha, what's happened?" she asked feebly.  
"It's OK", Jack replied, "The Cybermen – they've been destroyed. It's safe now" 

Lohan sat up, his face full of relief. He turned towards Jack and Martha and managed a small smile.  
"What will happen to me?" he asked.  
"None of my business I'm afraid" Jack replied. "Just stay here while I go and ask the Doctor."

Martha looked at Lohan enraged and ready to land a punch on his head. As she began to get out of bed Jack held her back.  
"The Doctor says we've gotta leave him alone" he said.  
Jack helped Martha out of bed and together they walked to the lift and ascended to the bridge.

Once there, they found the Doctor hard at work, nervously examining an electronic circuit that he was holding in his left hand. After a short while, he noticed the duo enter and smiled at them.  
"Just in time" he said.  
He thrust the circuit into Jack's hands and made a call to the colony on the radio.

* * *

There was no-one able to answer his call though. Two of the Policewomen were busy trying to open the door to the President's office whilst the others were busy trying to stop the menacing Cybermen entering the room with anything large they could lay their hands on. As she saw the light on the radio flash, Nicola tapped Rhea on the shoulder and pointed towards the radio. Rhea nodded and Nicola walked over to answer the call. 

The loss of Nicola meant that Rhea and the three others helping her were soon overwhelmed by the determined Cybermen. The Cybermen burst into the room, held the women by their necks, and broke them. Nicola looked horrified at the sight of Rhea dropping to the floor.  
Frantically, Nicola answered the radio. It was the Doctor again.  
"I need you to press the button marked 'All channels'" he said with a great deal of urgency.  
Nicola did as she was told.  
"Now, get somewhere safe and hold your ears!" the Doctor added.

Nicola darted across the room under fire and hid by the door. Moments later, a very loud sharp shriek filled the room. Nicola looked at the Cybermen and saw them all writhing in pain on the floor. After a short while, the writhing stopped and, out of their chests came a gunge-like substance. They were finally defeated.

* * *

Sensing that it had done the trick, the Doctor stopped broadcasting the very unpleasant sound and shouted into the receiver.  
"Nicola, you still there?" he asked.  
Nicola told him that she was OK and that the Cybermen had all been killed.  
Martha and Jack hugged each other excitedly as the news came though. The Doctor told Nicola that they were on their way and put down the radio with a delighted grin on his face.

* * *

With a lot of help from Jack and the Doctor, Nicola managed to open the hangar's roof entrance to let the huge spaceship enter the room. As it landed, she sought shelter from the rocket blast inside the corridor of the bunker. 

When the Doctor emerged, she was thrilled to see him. Then she noticed Martha and Jack carrying a frail looking President Lohan down the ramp, who she looked at with distain. It wasn't long before Lohan collapsed, exhausted from the emotion and from the slow erosion of his strength caused by the Cybermen's incomplete operation. Frantically Martha performed CPR on him, but this time there was no way of saving him.  
"He's dead. I'm sorry" she announced glumly to Nicola and the Doctor.

They looked around at the devastation around them. The hangar was littered with the bodies of dead women; Cybermen; and wrecked pieces of furniture. Nicola was the sole survivor of the battle. Charles had been hit by a ricochet from a Cyberman's rifle. The Doctor opened the door to what was the President's office and marched straight through to the Laboratory.

He was relieved when he saw a London Police Telephone Box sitting proudly in the corner. After saying goodbye to Nicola, the Doctor, Martha and Jack entered the TARDIS to begin yet another adventure.

**End of Chapter Ten**


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Nicola Newton sat at her desk in the Presidential palace. The twin suns were blazing high in the sky. Outside, Nicola could hear the sounds of cheers and celebratory music. One year had passed since the Doctor, Martha and Jack had landed on Golgafrincham. Nicola had been elected President by a landslide after six months of acting as Lohan's temporary replacement whilst a democratic structure was set up with a lot of help from the Earth government.

Open in front of her on her desk was a parliamentary motion to re-name the colony. She looked at it carefully before turning to the large painting of the first President, Paul Lohan. She sat back in her chair and began to wonder. Would he want the colony re-named? Was he really as bad as his reputation suggested? Despite the desecration of the Governmental compound after the events of last year, one important thing was kept in tact – Paul Lohan's diary. She turned to the entry for the 28th of April, 2032 and began to read.

* * *

_The Diary of Paul Lohan. April 28__th__, 3032._

_The day has finally arrived, planet fall; the day we arrive on Golgafrincham. The ship's Captain informed me that when he spoke to the preliminary team they told him the area was prepared for our habitation. Words cannot describe the way I felt when I saw the landing pad as the Ascendant descended from the heavens._

_Tomorrow is when it will all begin. The day we all begin to settle into our new home. I looked at the faces of all of the happy, talented people as they embarked all those days ago and I saw the look in their eyes. Each and every one spoke out and said "hope". How lovely it would be if this new world of ours would come to signify that emotion for eternity._

* * *

Nicola put the diary back on the shelf and looked at the painting once more. She smiled and placed the motion back in the envelope unsigned.  
"No" she said quietly "the name is as good as any. After all, we are the useless third of the population anyway. We're the descendants who never learnt of the achievements of our ancestors. There's so much of our past we need to learn." 

As the celebration parade got closer and closer to the compound, she thought of her three friends in their strange blue box. Where were they now? What will the future hold for them? As she heard a knock on the door, she got up and walked over to it. Her public was waiting.

**THE END**

* * *

_Author's note:_ A big thank you to everyone who has enjoyed reading my story - especially those who reviewed the various chapters. I aim to write another Doctor Who story later in the year. Once again, thank you for reading. Dan. 


End file.
